In Ads, McCain, Obama Claim Best Economic Plan

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

With growing turmoil in the financial markets, the presidential candidates have taken to the airwaves to burnish their economic credentials.

(Soundbite of McCain campaign ad)

Unidentified Announcer #1: When our economy is in crisis, a big government casts a big shadow on us all. Obama and his liberal congressional allies want a massive government.

(Soundbite of Obama campaign ad)

Senator BARACK OBAMA (Democrat, Illinois; Democratic Presidential Nominee): In the past few weeks, Wall Street's been rocked as banks closed and markets tumbled. But for many of you, the people I've met in town halls, backyards, and diners across America, our troubled economy isn't news...

NORRIS: Both Barack Obama and John McCain have released new ads this week. Both are trying to convince voters that they offer the best prescription for a troubled economy. We're going to spend some time examining some of those claims. And to do that, we're joined by Jonathan Martin, a writer for Politico. Welcome back to the program, Jonathan.

Mr. JONATHAN MARTIN (Writer, Politico.com): Thanks for having me, Michele.

NORRIS: Now, I want to focus on the economy.

Mr. MARTIN: Right.

NORRIS: John McCain found himself on the defensive this week explaining a certain statement he made about the strength of the fundamentals of the economy.

Mr. MARTIN: Right.

NORRIS: And let's take a quick listen. And as we do, you'll hear this urgent music. And what you see is a series of headlines. Lehman Brothers collapses, markets in turmoil, job losses at 605,000 for the year. And then you hear this.

(Soundbite of Obama campaign ad)

Senator JOHN MCCAIN (Republican, Arizona; Republican Presidential Nominee): Our economy, I think, still, the fundamentals of our economy are strong.

NORRIS: Jonathan, this seems to be a theme throughout the Obama ads, trying to portray John McCain as someone who's out of touch.

Mr. MARTIN: Well, the McCain campaign recognizes that their candidate committed a gaffe when he said, firstly, Monday morning, that the economy - fundamentals are still strong, as the market began to plunge and as these major finance houses began to collapse. It was certainly something that they would like to take back if they could. And Obama's campaign is seizing on that statement and holding it over his head.

This is something that McCain has said time and time again during the course of this campaign. The problem is, with the financial collapse going on, it just seems so out kilter. And furthermore, Michele, McCain had just gone up that same Monday morning with an ad talking about how the economy is in crisis. Those were the words of his announcer on his ads, so it was a gaffe on McCain's part. And the Obama campaign's been making them pay for it all week.

NORRIS: Well, John McCain has his own ad. It's called "Fundamentals." And he tries to explain his view on the economy and what he would do to fix it. Let's take a quick listen.

(Soundbite of McCain campaign ad "Fundamentals")

Senator MCCAIN: You, the American workers, are the best in the world, but your economic security has been put at risk by the greed of Wall Street. That's unacceptable. My opponent's only solutions are talk and taxes.

NORRIS: Does John McCain answer that claim adequately that he does not understand the economy in that ad?

Mr. MARTIN: What he is trying to do in this spot is to establish himself as a populist. This is sort of John McCain channeling Teddy Roosevelt where he is going to stand up for the worker, and the problems that have been wrought in this country are by greedy Wall Street types. And he is, I think, trying to sort of steer the conversation away from whether or not he does or doesn't get the economy and more onto a terrain of him fighting for the little guy, standing up for the little guy. And that's more comfortable, I think, rhetorically for him, Michele.

NORRIS: Both Barack Obama and John McCain are trying very hard to court female voters, and you see that in their ads. John McCain is trying to work up a little umbrage over the way Sarah Palin has been treated in an ad called "Fact Check."

(Soundbite of McCain campaign ad "Fact Check")

Unidentified Announcer #2: The attacks on Governor Palin have been called completely false, misleading. And they've just begun.

NORRIS: What you don't see here on the radio are the pictures of the wolves on the hunt when that voiceover talks about the army of lawyers.

Mr. MARTIN: Yes.

NORRIS: Is that effective?

Mr. MARTIN: What this ad - and there's a similar spot that is meant to portray Obama and Biden as sexist - it has the announcer, a female announcer, saying that their comments were disrespectful. These two ads, Michele, I don't think are really airing much on TV. I've actually done some reporting on this. They're not getting much airtime. These are meant to drive the media conversation. And a way to do that nowadays is to produce these spots, and you call them TV ads, and you put them out there, and they get played over and over again on cable TV for free. They get played over and over again online via YouTube.

NORRIS: And talked about on the radio.

Mr. MARTIN: And on the radio, like right now. And they start driving the conversation.

NORRIS: Jonathan Martin, always good to talk to you.

Mr. MARTIN: Thank you, Michele.

NORRIS: Jonathan Martin is a writer at Politico.com. And you can watch more political ads at npr.org's "Secret Money" blog. You'll also find breaking news about the latest independent ads airing in key states. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.